“Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania” is not only one of the worst-rated movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) on major review portals, but also the weakest “Ant-Man” movie by worldwide box office revenue of a whopping $ 447 million Film at the box office. The cast and crew, as well as those responsible at Disney and Marvel, certainly imagined otherwise, especially since the big new villain Kang the Conqueror (Jonathan Majors) was also introduced in “Quantumania”. So it’s fair to say that this is a disappointment – and that disappointment has a direct impact on the future of the MCU.
This was already evident right around the launch of “Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania”, when Marvel mastermind Kevin Feige vowed to focus more on class than quantity in the MCU series from now on and to even out the series’ publishing cycle. to pull. The MCU movie The Marvels aka Captain Marvel 2 has also been postponed (until November 8, 2023), but that’s not all.
Fewer Marvel sequels?
Disney CEO Bob Iger recently spoke at a conference about Marvel sequels and explicitly questioned whether every movie really needs one and especially several sequels. “Sequels usually worked well for us,” said Iger. “But for example, do we need a third or fourth part? Or is it time to move on to new characters?“
Shortly after the disappointing theatrical release of “Quantumania” and the similarly less-than-enthusiastic “Thor 4: Love And Thunder”, it seems that this was heavily focused on these two MCU titles – apparently this is the time when almost every superhero and every superheroine has three or more solo Marvel movies, so that’s it.
Despite Iger also stressed that there is nothing fundamentally wrong with Marvel. Instead, a reorientation and revision of the plans is necessary: “We just have to look at what characters and stories we’re using, and if you look at how Marvel has evolved over the next five years, you’ll see a lot of new stuff.”
New Avengers needs the MCU
And at least one MCU series is excluded from this refocus anyway, because of course there will be an “Avengers 5” and “Avengers 6”, as Iger emphasized again: “We’re going to be returning to the ‘Avengers’ franchise, but with a completely different set of Avengers.”
By that, Iger means that characters like Iron Man, Captain America, and Black Widow have left the MCU and their place will be taken by the many newcomers of recent years – be it Shang-Chi or Ms. Marvel or the Eternals.